Accuses LTA Of Trying To Lead It Into Bankruptcy
Orange Liberia has denied the Liberia Telecommunications Authority, LTA’s statement that it is not true that their new surcharges or increases in prices on voice calls and mobile data were arbitrarily done, but rather it was a result of an order from the regulator after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the national regulator.
Last week, LTA said that the increase in prices by both Orange and Lone Starcell MTN was “Arbitrary”.
In a press statement issued in Monrovia on Sunday, October 11, 2020 said:
“Orange Liberia wishes to recall that it is the LTA which promulgated LTA ORDER: 0016-02-25-19 on February 25, 2019. The surcharges were challenged by Orange Liberia thorough the Civil Law Court by filing a Petition for Judicial Review; and by operation of Section 81, Subsection 3 of the 2007 Telecommunications Act and an Order of the Civil Law Court, the effectiveness of the LTA ORDER was suspending pending a final determination of the case by the Liberian court,” said Orange-Liberia in the release.
“That final determination was made by the Supreme Court on September 3, 2020. It should be noted that it is Sections 4.1., 4.2, and 4.3 of the LTA ORDER, not the MNOs, which imposed the surcharges. These sections of the LTA ORDER specifically mandate MNO’s to impose surcharges on all on-net calls in the amount of $0.008 and to impose surcharges on each MB of data at a rate of $0.00065,” Orange said.
“Instead of the LTA agreeing to meet on how to roll out this scheme of the LTA ORDER, the LTA sent Orange Liberia invoices in the amount of approximately US$16.5 million for the period, March 2020 through August 2020 to be paid by October 21, 2020, or Orange Liberia’s license be suspended and taken to court.
“As a law-abiding entity, Orange Liberia moved to comply with the LTA ORDER by calculating the surcharges and placing them on top of its own costs to be paid by its customers, collected by Orange Liberia and remitted to LTA’s account. Shortly after Orange Liberia announced the rollout of its plan to implement the LTA ORDER, the LTA accused Orange Liberia of price-fixing, profiteering, collusion, antitrust conspiracy, and political motive for implementing the LTA ORDER, and directed that all MNOs should cease from implementing the LTA ORDER in the manner and way that the MNOs were implementing it,” the company said.
The LTA Board of Commissioners last week issued a statement giving the two GSM service providers a 12-hour ultimatum to reverse the latest increase in prices of voice call and data and restitute the amount added to customers. However none of these have been done to date. The LTA said in its statement that,“The LTA Board of Commissioners met with representatives from Orange Liberia and Lonestar Cell MTN earlier today (October 9, 2020) in separate meetings at the regulatory headquarters in Paynesville. The Board expressed its displeasure over the increase which was not approved and issued a stern warning. Both Service Providers confirmed in the meetings that they are in the process of reverting to prices prior to their arbitrary increase.”
In challenging the LAT’s claims, Orange Liberia said over the weekend that its recent action has been in done with the law.
“Orange Liberia has complied with this second order. Notwithstanding, the LTA wants Orange Liberia to pay surcharges, which Orange Liberia never collected from its customers and which Orange Liberia could not collect during the pendency of the Petition for Judicial Review lawsuit, because the law is that the effectiveness of LTA ORDER was suspended while that matter was in court,” the company said. “By LTA demanding now that Orange Liberia should pay the surcharges in the amount of US$19.3 million, which was never collected by Orange Liberia from its customers, the LTA is effectively ordering Orange Liberia into bankruptcy; which is unacceptable to Orange Liberia.”
“Orange Liberia is ready to open its records in substantiation of the fact that a payment of US$19.3 million will bankrupt the company; if surcharges were to be paid from Orange Liberia’s own revenue, Orange Liberia will not be a profitable enterprise in Liberia because it does not generate that amount of revenue from its own costs. It is just not a sustainable proposition,” Orange Liberia said.